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By Noelle Frampton
Connecticut Post Online
NORWALK, Conn. — Baby Jesus was born in a manger. Another bundle of joy was born here Sunday on a driveway.
State Police dispatchers got a welcome break from snow-related accident calls at 5:20 p.m. with the last crisis they expected: A baby was being born outside in below-freezing weather.
The expectant mother and her husband had been headed from their 4 Dixie Lane home, in a residential neighborhood near Oak Hills Park, to their car when the baby’s head began to emerge and she couldn’t go any further, said Dispatcher Nancy Martin.
The residents of 4 Dixie Lane are listed as Guido and Lucrece Constant, but it was unclear Sunday whether they were the new parents.
The couple stopped there, and the father called 911 from his cell phone -- which automatically went to Troop G headquarters in Bridgeport. Martin picked up.
“I grabbed for the medical book,” she said, adding that she put Trooper First Class Carlo Marandola on the phone while she read the instructions to him out loud, including how to unwrap the infant’s umbilical cord from its neck. “It happened so fast.”
A healthy baby boy, 7½ pounds, was born four minutes later.
The Norwalk Fire Department soon arrived and took over, helping to clear the baby’s nasal passages and get him crying, said Lt. Mark Franzen.
It was cold, but plenty of blankets from the house and the mother’s body heat kept the infant warm for 10 to 12 minutes until an ambulance arrived from New Canaan -- a slew of weather-related accidents had tied up all of Norwalk’s -- to take him and his mom to Norwalk Hospital, Franzen said.
Hospital staff pronounced the pair healthy, he said.
The happy new father called Troop G later to say thank-you, Martin said: “We’re all excited in here.”
It was “a heck of a call” for Firefighter Bill Ireland to experience his first night on the job, Franzen said.
“I’ve been here for 15 years and that was the first time that ever happened,” he said. “It’s a good story. The only thing missing was the manger.”
Copyright 2008 Connecticut Post Online